Which Croatian consulate covers you?

The Los Angeles consulate states the position more bluntly than most: use our list, not a list provided by anyone else, as we are the only ones that work directly with the Ministry. That is good advice at every post.

1. 4 posts

   United States

   • Embassy · Washington DC

     AL, DC, KY, MD, MS, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, plus American Samoa, Guam and the Pacific territories

   • Consulate General · New York

     CT, DE, FL, GA, ME, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, RI, SC, VT, plus Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands

   • Consulate General · Chicago

     AR, IL, IN, IA, LA, MI, MN, MO, WI

   • Consulate General · Los Angeles

     AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY

   Full United States guidearrow_forward

   What’s specific to United States

   Four posts, and the state lists are not intuitive. The FBI Identity History Summary is the required police check; Los Angeles expressly does not accept a state DOJ or livescan check in its place. It is apostilled by the US Department of State, Office of Authentications, which takes roughly four weeks, while vital records are apostilled by the Secretary of State of the state that issued them, so a single file often involves two different authorities.

   Los Angeles is the most demanding published post on presentation: two piles per adult, a photocopy of every sheet including apostilles and translations, a specified stapling order, no paperclips or folders, documents presented in numbered order. Its fee was $237.50 per adult as of 20 June 2025, payable by personal check, money order or card, with checks made out to “Consulate General of the Republic of Croatia”, the entire name written out.

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   Two standing pieces of advice from Los Angeles worth acting on anywhere: it maintains its own list of translators familiar with its process and will email it on request, and it tells applicants with appointments more than a few months out to re-check the list in mid-January or early February, because the requirements demonstrably change between revisions and have consistently become stricter.

2. 2 posts

   Canada

   • Consulate General · Mississauga

     Ontario excluding the city of Ottawa, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories

   • Embassy · Ottawa

     The rest of Canada, including the city of Ottawa itself

   Full Canada guidearrow_forward

   What’s specific to Canada

   Note the deliberate carve-out: Ontario files through Mississauga except the city of Ottawa, which files through the Embassy. Living in Ontario does not automatically mean Mississauga.

   Canada joined the Hague Apostille Convention on 11 January 2024, so any guidance describing authentication and consular legalisation predates that and is out of date. Which authority apostilles depends on the province. For proof of emigration, MVEP asks for the Canadian Landing immigrant document (IMM 1000) rather than an archival manifest, and the long-form birth certificate is officially the Certified Copy of the Birth Registration or Statement of Live Birth.

   Canada publishes a clear fee sheet, which is useful because it shows the ratio between routes: as at January 2025, CAD 288.58 for a citizenship application, CAD 81.61 for a determination of citizenship, CAD 30.12 for a child registration, and CAD 60 per registry document ordered through the post, by cheque or money order only.

3. 4 posts

   Australia

   • Embassy · Canberra

     ACT, areas of NSW bordering the ACT, and New Zealand

   • Consulate General · Sydney

     New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory

   • Consulate General · Melbourne

     Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania

   • Consulate · Perth

     Western Australia

   Full Australia guidearrow_forward

   What’s specific to Australia

   Canberra requires the apostille itself to be under six months old, not just the certificate underneath it. As far as we know this is unique to that post, and it catches people who apostille early in the process. Plan the apostille step late, not first.

4. 1 post

   New Zealand

   • Embassy · Canberra, Australia

     All of New Zealand, plus consular days held in New Zealand

   Full New Zealand guidearrow_forward

   What’s specific to New Zealand

   There is no resident Croatian mission in New Zealand. The country is covered by the embassy in Canberra, which holds consular days in New Zealand, recently in Auckland and Wellington, by appointment only and with limited slots.

   That means your entire document set has to be inside its recency window on one specific date, once a year. Build the whole file backwards from the consular-day date: criminal record check timed to land four to five months before it, vital records ordered close to it, apostilles and translations completed in between. Missing the window by a fortnight can mean waiting another year. The same logic applies anywhere consular days are used, including Argentina.

5. 1 post

   United Kingdom

   • Embassy · London

     The United Kingdom. 21 Conway Street, London W1T 6BN

   Full United Kingdom guidearrow_forward

   What’s specific to United Kingdom

   The fee is GBP 162.61, card payment only, paid at the embassy. The police certificate is in practice the ACRO Criminal Records Office certificate, though the post itself does not name ACRO, describing the requirement only as a certificate from the country the person has lived in for the past six months.

   The critical point, and it drives your timetable: there is no e-Apostille for ACRO certificates in England and Wales. Paper route only, £45, around 25 working days through the FCDO Legalisation Office, and London insists on the paper version.

   On translation, London accepts an official Croatian interpreter in the UK or a certified court interpreter in Croatia. For Article 16 applications only, London additionally requires a written recommendation in Croatian from a Croatian organisation. Ireland applies the same both-ways translation wording as the UK.

6. 6 posts

   Germany

   • Embassy · Berlin

     Berlin, Brandenburg, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen

   • Consulate General · Düsseldorf

     Nordrhein-Westfalen

   • Consulate General · Frankfurt

     Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland

   • Consulate General · Hamburg

     Hamburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Schleswig-Holstein

   • Consulate General · Munich

     Bayern

   • Consulate General · Stuttgart

     Baden-Württemberg

   Full Germany guidearrow_forward

   What’s specific to Germany

   Six posts, split by Land. No German post publishes a country-specific citizenship checklist; applicants work from the Ministry’s generic requirements and contact the mission directly. Anyone telling you there is a published German list is mistaken.

   The apostille runs in reversed order compared with everywhere else: you apply for the apostille at the Bundesamt für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten and pay first, then order the Führungszeugnis from the Bundesamt für Justiz quoting the BfAA application number. Civil status documents are apostilled by the Landesbehörden. The BfAA took this function over from the BVA, so older instructions circulating online are wrong.

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   One possible saving, unconfirmed: Germany is a CIEC/ICCS state, so a multilingual extract (mehrsprachiger Auszug) is available from the Standesamt, and Croatian guidance refers to extracts issued on a standard form pursuant to international agreements. In principle that could remove the apostille and translation requirement for German civil status documents. No Croatian source confirms it. Worth asking your post; not worth assuming.

7. 1 post

   Argentina

   • Embassy · Buenos Aires

     Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, plus consular days

   Full Argentina guidearrow_forward

   What’s specific to Argentina

   Buenos Aires covers Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and runs consular days. The police certificate is the national Certificado de Antecedentes Penales from the Registro Nacional de Reincidencia; provincial police certificates are a different and narrower document. The trap: RNR certificates can only be apostilled within 90 days of issue, tighter than Croatia’s six-month window. The post publishes its own list of traductores públicos of Croatian; use it.

   For emigration records, the Archivo General de la Nación holds the immigration entry books for 1882 to 1937 and issues certified copies. CEMLA is a private centre whose own certificate is described in its FAQ as being of historical and sentimental value. The AGN is the state route and the safer one.

8. 1 post

   Chile

   • Embassy · Santiago

     Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia

   Full Chile guidearrow_forward

   What’s specific to Chile

   Santiago covers Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, and is the strictest post on translation that publishes a rule: it requires a sworn interpreter authorised by the Republic of Croatia, and a Chilean traductor público is not accepted. It also specifies the physical binding, with thread and seal. Santiago follows the MVEP general six-month recency rule for vital records rather than the longer Los Angeles window.

9. 1 post

   Brazil

   • Embassy · Brasília

     Brazil. Publishes no citizenship document list.

   Full Brazil guidearrow_forward

   What’s specific to Brazil

   Brasília covers Brazil and, like the German posts, publishes no citizenship checklist. The Federal Police criminal record certificate is free and available online through gov.br, but it is valid for only 90 days, shorter than Croatia’s six months, so time it tightly. The long-form birth certificate is the certidão de inteiro teor rather than the certidão em breve relato.

10. 1 post

    South Africa

    • Embassy · Pretoria

      South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, Botswana, Burundi, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia

    Full South Africa guidearrow_forward

    What’s specific to South Africa

    Pretoria covers South Africa and, additionally, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Botswana, Burundi, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi and Namibia. There is no consulate general in Johannesburg. The police check is the Police Clearance Certificate on form SAPS 91(a), issued by SAPS in Pretoria, around R114 and roughly 15 working days as published in 2025.

    The apostille split matters here: DIRCO handles Home Affairs and SAPS documents; the High Court handles notarised and private documents. Sending a High Court document to DIRCO wastes weeks. The long-form birth certificate is the unabridged certificate, and the post names a specific court translator on its page.